O2 say my coverage on GiffGaff might not be as good, even though they use O2.....

pinkteapot

Thanks all. On balance, I decided to take option 1 and stay with O2.

Unfortunately GiffGaff's £7.50/month one doesn't have quite enough minutes for me, so I'd always end up spending a few quid in calls on top.

It irks me that I'd get so much more for the extra £1 with GiffGaff, and without tie-in, but I'm well under the 300 mins / 300Mb I'll be getting so it makes sense really.

Plus saves taking the chance on the mobile internet being ropey in my area. We have a lot of trouble with our broadband at home (sorting that is next on my list!) so I often end up using 3G in the house!

joeluken

pinkteapot wrote: »

Mostly, I started this thread to check that O2 weren't talking sh&te about a competitor.

If you spend your money with o2 it goes to Telefonica and if you spend you money with giffgaff it goes to Telefonica.


Both are brands of the same company.

Rev

They told me the same when I moved to tesco. I've noticed no different.

They told my uncle the same when he moved to tesco. He's noticed no different.

oldharryrocks

Rev wrote: »

They told me the same when I moved to tesco. I've noticed no different.

They told my uncle the same when he moved to tesco. He's noticed no different.

Yes they do tell people that,and they own 50% of Tesco Mobile.

visidigi

pinkteapot wrote: »

Thanks both. I'm just Googling and found the GiffGaff forums, where there's discussion about this. There are people reporting that their internet access (over 3G) runs slower since they moved from O2 to GiffGaff. This seems to be the main area where it can differ.

I'm trying to figure out how this is possible, after having a sim swap due to poor connectivity near my home and office over the last few months and o2 claming it 'must be me' - I have just spent an entire weekend in a fairly popular coastal town in England with nothing other than GPRS and not enough of a signal on that to even send/receive an email.

o2's network is now beyond a joke...seriously, its horrific all by itself now if GiffGaff can be worse I can't possibly see how.

d123

Rev wrote: »

They told me the same when I moved to tesco. I've noticed no different.

They told my uncle the same when he moved to tesco. He's noticed no different.

Tesco is supposedly higher up the priority list, so the difference wouldn't be quite so noticeable (and remember, the priority system should only be noticed when the network is busy/congested).

The priority list is supposely O2 contract -> O2 PAYG/Tesco/Lyca -> Giffgaff.

boatman

That list makes sense, for the past 2 months, when ever i check the O2 status in my area BH2 it says 'Sorry we are experiencing high service demand in this area', no wonder i get no signal if i'm bottom of the list..

[Deleted User]

I tried Giffgaff a couple of months back. Even in the centre of town, the data speed was unusable. Tested it next to an O2 SIM, definite difference.

d123

billbennett wrote: »

I tried Giffgaff a couple of months back. Even in the centre of town, the data speed was unusable. Tested it next to an O2 SIM, definite difference.

The OP is talking about coverage, rather than data speed.

Plenty of people are finding Giffgaff data speeds to be slower (as data is controlled by APN the network can give more priority to one APN over another), but there is no difference in coverage between O2 and Giffgaff (as they are the same network).

sillygoose

d123 wrote: »

This is right, in essence they run on the same network so calls and texts usually work exactly the same on both (but at times of high usage, for example, New Years Eve, an O2 contract customer could have a higher priority on the network than a Giffgaff PAYG user).

With data usage, the network can control speeds and priorities on a everyday basis, and while I often find Giffgaff to be very good (better than any Vodafone line), it can slow down to under 1Mbps at busy times (Giffgaff are currently working on procedures to sort this).

For normal usage, there is no reason not to use Giffgaff.

Exactly my experience we have 3 now on Giffgaff. My work phone is on a very expensive O2 corporate contract covering thousands of users and even that gets disconnected mid-call sometimes with 'network busy'

If the O2 phone can get a signal, make a call or send a text at a spot, then the Giffgaff one can too no difference. If the O2 one can get data, so can the Giffgaff one at the same place. It is slower buts its never been slow enough to really matter in normal day to day use (1-2Mbps at its lowest is still enough for email and surfing easily, its usually higher). For us its been as simple as that.